Vesta of Salemini

Vesta of Salemini
Vesta of Salemini
	Portrait of Vesta as regent of the Kingdom of Salisia.
Empress Consort of Salisia
Tenure	10 Haliga 991 – 25 Aerra Geola 991
Regent of the Empire of Salisia
Tenure	30 Aerra Geola 991 - 2 Ostara 1002
Regent of the Kingdom of Salisia
Tenure	2 Ostara 1002 - 18 Winduma 1007
Born	5 Aerra Geola 971; Salemini, Salisia
Spouse	Lucius I (991)
Issue	Lucius II
House	Ambrosius
Father	Julianus of Salemini
Mother	Caesennia of Rávas

Vesta of Salemini (5 Aerra Geola 971 - 12 Solmantha 1033) was the first Empress of Salisia as the wife of Emperor Lucius I, and de facto regent of Salisia from 991 until 1007. She and her twin sister Amata were the only children of Julianus of Salemini and Caesennia of Rávas, and were descendents of the kings of Aweria. She was notable in her time for her diplomatic skill, beauty, and intelligence, but the perceived failure of her foreign policy caused her to be viewed as unambitious and weak. Her period as regent saw the loss of the recently-conquered Aweria to the Saarun Empire and the collapse of the briefly-lived Salisian Empire. She was overthrown by her son Lucius II after sixteen years of regency, and spent the rest of her life as an influential figure in his court.

Vesta, as the younger twin, had been intended as her sister's swordmaiden. However, after the death of Amata in 988, she became her parents' main heir. Soon after, she was betrothed to Lucius I, and after the conclusion of the Tenth Great Holy War and the establishment of the Salisian Empire in 991, they married. The marriage was shortly-lived, but during its four-month duration she conceived Lucius II. After the death of her husband in a riding accident, she successfully petitioned the Chambers to declare her the regent of his unborn child in order to avoid a war of succession. Lucius II was born five months later in 992 and crowned Emperor of Salisia the day after.

Her reign was largely troubled by the management of the newly-gained imperial holdings in Aweria, which eventually culminated in the Eleventh Great Holy War in 1001. Vesta negotiated an end to the war by relinquishing her claims to Aweria in exchange for a large sum of gold. This move was especially unpopular among her Salisian vassals with land in Aweria, and was cited as the reason for several unsuccessful revolts and conspiracies against her that occurred afterwards. After increasingly desperate measures to secure power in the later years of her reign, she was deposed by her son Lucius II, who ended her regency. However, she continued to play a crucial diplomatic and advisory role in her son's court until the end of her life.

Early Life and Marriage: 971-991

Vesta was born an hour after her sister Amata in Salemini on the fifth of Aerra Geola in 971. Chroniclers claim that the ordeal of birthing two Descendent children nearly killed their mother and rendered her infertile for the rest of her life. Vesta was intended as her elder twin's swordmaiden from birth, likely as a way to increase Amata's marriage prospects. While their family's name was illustrious, Julianus of Salemini was only a castellan with minimal wealth and holdings for someone of his stature. Vesta and Amata were educated in several aristocratic sourts around Salisia, but in 982 at the age of 11, both girls were sent to be educated in Seveglia at the court of Vesperus III. Some historians believe she and Lucius met during this period of her life, but the size of the court made extensive interactions between the two unlikely.

In 987, Amata was killed by agents of the Saarun Empire, leading to the declaration of the Tenth Great Holy War. Julianus of Salemini and King Lucius I both publicly claimed that Vesta had witnessed this be done by the Saarun Prince Nahmar, who was studying at the University of Seveglia under a pseudonym at the time. However, Vesta would later go on to claim after her son's betrothal to a Saarun princess that Amata and Nahmar had secretly married before her death, and that Amata had died while trying to save Nahmar from assassins sent by his brothers. Emperor Arqaan IV denied both version of events, insisting that the Saarun Empire never killed Amata. Amata's death attracted immense attention towards Vesta's family, and made her the sole heir of her parents. Regardless of the true cause behind it, Vesta was apparently heartbroken by her sister's death, refusing to wear any color but mourning black until her wedding almost four years later.

On Ascension Day, 991, Lucius announced his and Vesta's betrothal before embarking on the journey to Aweria. A few weeks later, Ashala of Corovia, who likely unknown to Vesta, was a Mystite dissident, was knighted as her swordmaiden. In the month of Solmantha, Vesta swore an oath to join the Great Holy War and sailed to Bulakaya, where she acted as a translator during the negotiations to end the Siege of Bulakaya. She returned home afterwards, having never seen combat herself. In the month of Thrilitha, she was gravely injured in an assassination attempt by Prince Samir under the orders of Arqaan IV, but was rescued by her guards before she could be killed. After the end of the Tenth Great Holy War in Haliga, 991, Vesta sailed to the capital of the new Salisian Empire, The Heart of the World, to be married. During the ceremony, her swordmaiden Ashala attempted to kill the emperor with a hidden blade but was arrested and later executed. It was rumored at the time that Vesta had some degree of knowledge of her swordmaiden's background and intentions, but she was adamant that she had not been.

According to Vesta's own words in later accounts, her brief-lived marriage to Lucius was a happy one. However, chroniclers from the time alleged that she would fly into "great fits of rage" after spending time with her husband, and that on one occasion she openly challenged his rulings in public. Yet despite great public pressure to do so after his death, she never remarried.

Reign as Regent: 991-1007

Rise to Power, 991-992

On the morning of 25 Aerra Geola 991, Lucius was riding his horse on the grounds of the royal palace in The Heart of the World when he was thrown from the mount and killed. Many conspiracy theories from then and now have been put forward suggesting that the King was killed deliberately; while these are certainly possible due to past attempts on his life, most modern historians reject them due to the commonality of riding accidents and related deaths during this period. A common belief was that this was yet another assassination by the thwarted Saarun Empire, but a later investigation held by Vettorio Sellarii found no evidence of this. After Lucius's death was announced, chaos broke out, and the Chambers called for an emergency session to determine succession.

As Lucius was the last living member of the Caelus dynasty, there was no one left with even a weak claim to the throne. Not only was this politically significant, but religiously so, as the extinction of an entire holy Descendent line had not occurred in centuries and would have major ramifications. The Chambers deliberated for two days straight, in which some members argued that Vesta, being pregnant with Lucius's child, should be its regent until its birth. Vesta was repeatedly made to "prove" her pregnancy through multiple public medical examinations, and both she and her maids endured intense questioning to ensure that there was no one else who could be the father. When asked to testify on her own behalf, she also emphasized the claim to the Awerian throne that she held in her own right, which no other candidate had. Eventually, it was agreed upon that she should be regent to her child.

Her first act as regent was to reverse Lucius's Decree of 991, which required all non-Centiclarians in the empire's boundaries to convert or be forced to leave. This was an act she had opposed as consort and openly criticized. She also permitted all who had been converted due to the Decree to return to their previous faiths, and those that had left to return to their homes. Beyond this single act, she gave over most of her legislative powers to the Chambers, allowing others to characterize her as demure and easy to control. However, she fiercely maintained control over political appointments, giving positions to powerful allies who would later defend her regency. Vettorio Sellarii was made chancellor, and Marino Valieri, Flavius Tanicus, and Bruno Fiolo were given senior positions in government. The late king had left many temple positions in Aweria unfilled, and Vesta set about nominating candidates to these, in an effort to build further support for her new government.

On 1 Aerra Litha 992, Vesta gave birth to Lucius II. A birth involving a number of painful complications, she is reported to have pleaded with the midwife to save her life if the choice came between her and her child. However, both she and her son survived the ordeal. It was probably intended that Vesta's regency only last as long as her pregnancy; however, a day later, she had Lucius crowned as emperor in the Heart of the World Cathedral with herself as regent. Afterwards, she issued a coronation charter laying out various commitments on the behalf of her son. She presented herself as the loyal widow of the highly popular former emperor and the loving guardian of the last remaining Caelus. She announced that in the interim until her son's majority, she would abandon the warlike policies of her predecessors and "establish a firm peace" across the empire; she promised a return to the prosperous days of the Kingdom of Aweria; she promised never to levy a tax like those that had been raised to fund the Tenth Great Holy War. She also spent time in her charter attacking her political enemies and warning the people of Salisia against allowing them to become the new regent; claiming that permitting them to take power would lead to civil war and the loss of their newly-conquered lands. This solidified initial support among both the people and the Chambers for her continued regency.

A Fragile Peace, 992-1000

After securing her continued status as regent during Lucius's coronation, Vesta allegedly fell into a "deep melancholy" that prevented her from taking effective political actions. She also reportedly spent little time with the infant king, instead entrusting nursemaids to breastfeed and take care of him. Most modern historians believe these may have been a symptoms of postpartum depression, but rumors of existing mental instability during her time as consort leaves this diagnosis a controversial one. During this period of inaction, Vettorio Sellarii solidified and extended his power as chancellor, making himself the most powerful commonblood in the history of Salisia up to that point. For the rest of Vesta's regency, he would effectively serve as her co-regent and curb much of her personal political power.

After a few months she warmed towards her son, whom she nicknamed "Lucy," and returned to full participation in the political arena, albeit with reduced capability. When Sergius Pulla laid claim to Tirach (then belonging to Linus Arquitius), claiming that his ancestors had governed the city, Vesta summoned Sergius to The Heart of the World, but Sergius did not recognize her authority to act on behalf of the King. They agreed to meet at a river near Bulakaya, but their meeting did not result in a compromise. The conflict was resolved when Sergius was invited to administer Ravetina on Antonius Volusius's behalf. Before leaving for Ravetina, Sergius renounced all his claims in Aweria, but also stipulated that the same domains should be granted in fief to him if he were to leave Ravetina within fifteen months. Vesta then gave Tirach to Linus. A few prominent cities within Aweria still under Saarun governance sent gifts to Vesta to ensure her benevolence.

During this time, the pressure on Salisian holdings in Aweria, both from outside and within, was enormous. Aweria was far larger than Salisia, and had a far more mountainous environment, making establishing control over the land very difficult for the Salisian army. Up until its withdrawal in 1006, there were many guerilla forces made up of native Saaruns working around Aweria. There were large areas where the Salisians had absolutely no control, and travel was treacherous at best. While there were some early attempts at quelling the fighting forces, this proved extremely difficult. Instead, Vesta opted for a defensive approach, ordering her soldiers to escort travelers through the many bandit-filled mountain passes. Due to this danger, there were very few Salisian settlers who came to Aweria under Vesta's reign, making Salisian control there even more tenuous.

In the remains of the Saarun Empire, many vassals were outraged with the concessions Emperor Arqaan had made to the Salisians in order to stay in power. His general, Solak, used this as a chance to consolidate power around himself, presenting himself as being able to reunite all parts of the old Saarun Empire. This worried many of Vesta's Awerian vassals, and she reportedly went into talks very early on with Solak in order to ensure a continuing peace with the Saaruns. Solak was reportedly quite impressed with Vesta's diplomatic skill and fluency in Qina, however was frustrated by her inability to take decisive action to rein in her vassals. The negotiations broke down and were not to be restarted for another few years.

Eleventh Great Holy War, 1001-1002

The major catalyst for war were the violent actions of a Salisian Awerian marcher lord, Tertius Aemilius. Formerly a general in the Tenth Great Holy War, he had been appointed by King Lucius as a lord over a large stretch of land bordering the hostile Saarun Empire. Though explicitly commanded not to do so by Vesta, Tertius conducted regular raids on the bordering Saarun lands, sacking cities and killing many Saaruns in the process. This led Vesta to eventually strip him of his titles, but all this meant is that he stopped paying her taxes. The strength of his army and Vesta's reluctance to begin a civil war caused her never to take his power from him by force. When Tertius attempted to burn down a Serafen holy site and killed Solak's sister and daughter in a raid in 1001, Solak officially declared war upon Salisia with the backing of the now mostly-ceremonial Saarun imperial family.

Though Vesta immediately raised the imperial army to meet Solak's challenge, she initially refused to call for a Great Holy War, as she still hoped for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The two armies met on either side of the River Akiş and waited for the other to attack. The two armies held out for three weeks without much more than occasional skirmishes in an attempt to lure the other to attack. Eventually, Tertius broke order and commanded his men to attack, falling right into Solak's trap. The Battle of Akiş was an early and decisive victory for the Saaruns, who killed up to half of the Salisian forces. After this, Vesta was forced by her vassals to officially call for the Eleventh Great Holy War. However, other Centiclarian states were less eager to send forces so soon after the last Great Holy War, so it remained largely a war between the Saaruns and the Salisians.

During this period, the two armies began capturing small cities within one another's territory. The Salisians won a major victory at the Siege of Irmak, where they struck a heavy blow, though not one equal to the one given to them at Akiş. After this, Vesta and Solak re-entered negotiations. Lucius I's war to conquer Aweria had been tremendously expensive, and the ongoing conflict proved to be even more so. Vesta agreed to renounce all Salisian claim on Awerian land, save for the crucial port city of Tirach, which had been under Salisian control for the longest amount of time, and agreed to withdraw all Salisian governance and military from those areas within the year. In exchange, the Saaruns would pay 500,000 gold pieces to the Salisian state (a hugely costly sum in that day) in compensation for the massive casualties induced during the Battle of Akiş, which would in theory be redistributed to Salisian nobles with land in Aweria. Additionally, a betrothal was arranged between Lucius II and Solak's granddaughter, Melis, in order to ensure a longer peace than most inter-religious truces were designed to last. This was conditioned on the protection of Aweria's Centiclarians and Mystites, who would be permitted to stay if they so chose.

Final Years As Regent, 1003-1007

Vesta's decision to hand over most of Aweria, seen as the bloodright of the Ambrosius family and the Salisian people, to their archenemies was extremely unpopular. While strategically necessary, it contributed to the sense of resentment the regime. This was only exacerbated by accusations that Vesta was not appropriately dividing the spoils of settlement amongst the Salisian noble families who had lost land in Aweria. The situation only worsened when, in 1005, Solak's son and heir, Firat, captured Tirach, marking a second ending of Salisian rule in Aweria.

Servius Cervidius was one of the first to break with Vesta, refusing to attend court and mobilizing support amongst the commoners of Seveglia. Vesta responded to the insubordination by undertaking a wide reform of royal administration and taxes. While good for domestic opinion, Salisian nobility remained unimpressed. By the end of 1105 the situation nearly descended into civil war, with Cervidius mobilizing his army against Vesta. In Ostara 1006, Vesta's forces took several strongholds of Cervidius's lands; Vesta—wearing armor, and mounted on a warhorse—marched rapidly north, resulting in Cervidus's surrender. He escaped death but was subjected to a colossal fine, effectively crippling his power. Vesta was merciful to those who had aligned themselves with him, although some—such as her old supporter Bruno Fiolo, whose family split from Vesta over the peace with the Saarun Empire, which had lost them huge land holdings in Aweria—fled to Blackheart.

Despite Cervidius's defeat, however, discontent continued to grow. Governance slowed to a crawl, and Vesta began to attempt to centralize power around herself in a manner that her critics painted as coup-like. Several times she was asked to step down in favor of her son, who was now of age to rule. Each time, she refused. During this period, chroniclers claim she began to display increasing paranoia over her own grip on power. In 1007, several nobles were caught in a conspiracy to assassinate Vesta. The conspirators were arrested and all executed publicly, leaving a bloody stain on Vesta's reputation.

Fall From Power, 1007

By mid-1107, Vesta's grip on power was increasingly tenuous and her son, Lucius, was growing increasingly frustrated over his mother's refusal to hand over the regency. Lucius quietly assembled support from several nobles and members of Vesta's inner circle, while Vesta moved into Ariccia Castle for safety, surrounding herself with loyal troops. In the fall, Vesta attempted to oust her long-time partner in governance, Vettorio Sellarii, which caused him to secretly align with Lucius. Lucius was convinced this was the moment to act, and on 18 Winduma 1007, Lucius led a force of twenty-three armed men into the castle by a secret tunnel. Fighting broke out on the stairs and Vesta's men were overwhelmed. Vesta reportedly threw herself at her son's feet in tears, pleading for him to have mercy on her. Lucius's troops rapidly took the rest of the castle, leaving him in control of his own government for the first time.

Later Years: 1007-1033

In Retirement, 1007-1033

After the coup, Vesta was briefly put under house arrest, but quickly pardoned by Lucius, who publicly blamed his mother's unpopular actions on the influence of her inner circle (most of whom had abandoned her by the end). Little is known of Vesta's activity during the immediate period following the coup, but some historians posit that she had a breakdown following years of increasing mental instability. While regent, she had been well known to work herself tirelessly. Reportedly, she slept only in small bursts and would only take part in recreational activities such as feasts if she believed it necessary to her public image, which would only have exacerbated any underlying issues. However, within months she returned to court as her son's advisor.

Despite Lucius's overwhelming popularity in comparison to Vesta, his policies did not stray far from his mother's, instead continuing her liberalizing mindset. She was even accused several times of continuing to maintain true control over the throne through influence of her son, though public disagreement between the two was not uncommon. Throughout the rest of her life, she would play a crucial role in Lucius II's role as a diplomat to foreign rulers, who had a far more positive view of her reign than domestic leaders. Notably, she famous led peace talks to end the Pirates' War to great success, and continued to play a critical role in diplomacy with the Saarun Empire alongside her daughter-in-law Melis, who she grew quite close with. She additionally was said to have doted on her grandchildren, and took special interest in educating Lucius's eldest daughter, Isotta, who years after Vesta's death would go on to inherit the throne herself.

While she maintained relatively withdrawn from her social role during this period, instead choosing to continue to focus on her work, she would regularly attend and compete in hunts, something she almost never did during her reign as regent. She maintained a strict exercise regimen through the rest of her life, and there is no further mention of the bouts of melancholy or madness she was reported to have experienced earlier in her life. Whether this was actually the case, or if she was simply under less scrutiny after the end of her regency, is unknown.

While never nearly as religious as her late husband, and often accused of impiety, in her later years Vesta took a deep interest in religion. She patronized several temples and holy orders, a few of which still bear her name to this day. Additionally, she spent much of her personal wealth funding theologians and philosophers that shared her modernist notions of religion, notably including a young Bonifazio Spizega.

Death, 1033

Vesta died of a heart attack on 12 Solmantha 1033 at the age of 61. Upon her death, Lucius II declared a month-long state of mourning throughout the country. He chose to bury her not with her husband in the royal cemetery, but alone in the newly-built Ambrosius Cathedral that she had funded the construction of.

Legacy and Character

The loss of Aweria under Vesta's reign caused many of her contemporaries to view her as a weak ruler who refused to defend the rights of her vassals. While quite popular and well-renowned for her beauty prior to her marriage to Lucius I, upon ascending to royal status she was often characterized as severe and withdrawn in personality, while also regularly being accused of being "overly emotional" in her handling of politics. Likely mental illness plagued her entire life, which also led to characterization as being erratic and tyrannical, especially towards the end of her regency.

Historians since have viewed Vesta more favorably. In the opinion of modern historians, traditional assessments of Vesta as weak, unpatriotic, withdrawn, and emotional lack serious historical evidence and more likely derive from sexist prejudice against women. It is generally agreed that the Eleventh Great Holy War would likely have been unwinnable if it had continued in the face of unprecedented unity against the Salisians under Solak, and that Vesta had the foresight to negotiate the best deal possible as soon as she did. She was able to negotiate a successful lasting peace between two countries who had spent their entire existences warring; they never had a major conflict again, and formed a tight trade alliance lasting centuries. Vesta's later actions to consolidate power around herself in the face of increased domestic resistance were not at all unusual for the time period, either, save for her refusal to surrender her regency to her adult son.

Vesta's open respect for other faiths was remarkably ahead of her time, and was a likely driver of her willingness to and success in bargaining with the Saaruns. Domestically, she also publicly pledged herself to the protection of Salisia's Mystite population, even giving them a seat in the Chamber of Guildsmen, an early example of political representation for religious minorities. While perhaps not appreciated in her day, Vesta's reign lay the groundwork for nearly a century of unparalleled peace, prosperity, and coexistence in Salisia.

Speculation regarding sexuality

There has been recent interest among some historians in the topic of Vesta's sexuality, in particular whether there was evidence of homosexuality. She faced early rumors of lesbianism during her brief reign as consort and first few months as regent, which even back then were initially dismissed as baseless. In the later years of her reign, these accusations were brought up again by some vassals and courtiers as a way to pressure her into marriage and thus out of the political sphere. However, her lack of re-marriage even after the end of her regency did not contain the same threat to her power, and was considered exceedingly strange. The fact that she was still of child-bearing age at that point was especially criticized as being selfish.

Vesta maintained until her death that she had loved her husband and that she would not re-marry out of respect for him. However, this is inconsistent with several overlapping accounts of her distress in regards to the marriage, both prior to and during her reign as consort. Some historians have also raised their extreme ideological differences in policy to support the idea that it would have been unlikely for the two of them to even get along, much less fall in love with each other. Regardless, there is no evidence that Vesta took any lovers, male or female, outside of her husband, despite being under extreme scrutiny in that matter throughout much of her life. Thus, this analysis is generally rejected as not having enough evidence one way or the other.